Slayte getting better, Tooney is cute, Enzo is fast

Slayte has shown a lot of improvement in his disc skills. This post is to talk about his “graduation” and how I see his outlook at 5 months. He has graduated from doing mostly rollers to doing mostly throws now. He’s only 5 months old but is showing great tracking skills and a strong interest to jump. I’m trying to keep the disc in a place where he doesn’t need to jump, but there’s always variations in the throws and sometimes he has to jump. When he does, he looks real good. I think he’s going to be a dog that can catch anything – which is the 1 quality Enzo doesn’t have. I started throwing forehands, overhands, thumbers, etc yesterday for the first time and he caught them just like any other disc. I’m really stoked.

It is pretty clear to me that he is not going to be the pure athlete that Enzo is. If Enzo’s a 10 on the athletic scale, Slayte right now looks like a 7. However, Slayte is a 10 with intelligence and is showing tremendous ability to catch discs that Enzo wouldn’t even be close to at that age. Heck, he’s catching discs I’m not sure Enzo could catch now! I think Slayte is going to be more successful than Enzo as a disc dog. I almost can’t believe I’m saying that because Enzo is my pride and joy and he has that something special that very few disc dogs have that I can’t put into words. The only way I can describe it is by demonstration – with Enzo standing still right in front of me, I toss a disc 2′ in the air right in front of me and Enzo jumps up 5′ in the air, landing 10′ away from me in a fraction of a second. 99% of dogs would turn their head and just catch the disc without hardly moving… not Enzo, he’s going to do everything with the absolute most effort and intensity possible. But in terms of disc talent, Slayte is progressing significantly faster than Enzo did and is showing me things I have never seen in Enzo. I think he will be somewhere between Tooney and Enzo. He will have more jumping ability and speed than Tooney but will have her tracking and catching ability. Maybe it will be the perfect mix, because I think it has significant potential to being the exact mix required to be a great disc dog.

Honorable mention to Tooney for being cute and Enzo for being supa fast.